Golden Week and Afterwards

Last weekend being a four-day weekend, I did what any typical college student would have done--slept in and avoided homework like the plague. Saturday I didn't wake up until 1, though I'm not sure why because I seem to have lost the ability to sleep in that late, and I spent what was left of the day doing absolutely nothing special. Such as, play chess against the computer, because I is a bit of a nerd.

Sunday, I was invited/coerced into going to my host family's cookout in their front "yard." Seriously, this thing is not a yard by any stretch of the imagination. It is maybe three feet from the house to the street, and about as wide as the house, and filled with plants so there is almost no walking space. I was also told we were having bbq. What we actually had was more like pieces of meat and vegetables cooked over a mini gas burner. I was expecting something resembling the types of bbq we make in the US, so I was vastly disappointed. When I figured out what Japanese bbq actually was, I was also vastly disappointed that there was no octopus. As strange as I’m sure it sounds to some Americans who actually read this blog, I do like octopus. And to top it all off, the only available drink was cheap, nasty beer. I personally would have preferred water, but alas…

Fortunately, the evening got better as it progressed because I went to Yawatashi's shrine for the lantern festival with Heather and two of her obaasans, who, by the way, are absolutely freaking awesome! I will have photos of the shrine up later when I'm not busy procrastinating. It was really beautiful, but I like fire so of course I would think so. The festival is actually the only time in the year that the shrine is open to the public. You can come on the grounds any time, but you can’t go past the main gate but one night a year. Inside this gate they had a place where you could write wishes and wrap them around a candle to create a sort of lantern. And then, because the main shrine building itself was under construction, we were allowed to actually go in the main shrine building and see all the architecture. Yawatashi shrine is definitely not a poor shrine. I was fascinated by the wood carvings (I want to learn to do that!) and they even had a support to the shrine that was made of “pure gold.” Considering how big the support was, I doubt it was all pure gold. But even if it were just covered in plates of gold, that still gives you an idea of how elaborate and wealthy this shrine actually is.

Two more random facts about Yawatashi Shrine before I move on; first, on the grounds of the shrine, there is a second minor shrine to… Thomas Edison! Yes, Thomas Edison is now a Japanese kami. Of light and electricity. Straaaaaaaaange. Second, pigeons are considered the messengers of the shrine, thus, I was not allowed to punt them. Made me sad.

On Monday, I woke up late again (probably because I was getting used to waking up late over the weekend), and then went to Osaka to go to a concert for a band I’ve never heard of before. Since the concert was in Nanba, there was definitely Mexican food involved. So my four day weekend was a success just based on the fact that I had Mexican food. And it was good. That’s one thing I can’t wait for when I get home—real Mexican food. The shop in shinsaibashi is as close as it gets in Japan, but still… I miss being able to get cheap Mexican food any time of the week. The concert, by the way, was fantastic.

So when I got home from the concert somewhere between 11 and 11:30, my ears were ringing so I had to stay up to wait until they stopped. So, I played a game of chess until the ringing went away and then went to bed feeling like I had cotton balls in my ears. That’s my only complaint about the concert. My hearing was back and mostly normal on Tuesday, but because of the concert, I got very very very little sleep. This is bad, because I had to wake up early in the morning to be at Osaka Station by 11 to go to Kobe.

Kobe was… Interesting to say the least. First off, I was in this half-asleep state for most of the morning, thus I did not object when we got on the wrong train and, in fact, did not realize that we were even on the wrong train until we got all the way out to Sanda. It’s gorgeous out there and I have pictures, but… This meant we didn’t actually make it to Kobe until 2pm. Sanda, by the way, looks like Ise from the train. I have decided that if/when I come back on the JET program, I want to live in a place like Sanda or Ise, etc. Somewhere that’s in the country but close enough to the cities that I can go there over the weekend. Since most people want to be actually inside the cities, I think it shouldn’t be terribly difficult to get what I want.

So, when we got to Kobe, we were starving. We went to the Mosaic building in Harborland, which is a shopping district near the tower on the harbor, incase you haven’t guessed. There, we had lunch. We thought about Brazilian because it smelled absolutely delicious, but it was 23$ a plate and we both said no to that. The next option was a shop that sold REAL hamburgers. Not the Makudo kind, I mean real meat, real cheese, real everything. The trouble was that the waiter didn’t understand us. So, we ASKED for a “Hamburger” and got a “Hamburg.” Now, the difference between the two is this: a Hamburger is exactly what we think of when we think of a Hamburger, with a bun, cheese, vegetables, and meat. A Hamburg is just the meat, usually with some sort of sauce, and for our particular hamburg, we got a cooked egg on top. Needless to say we were very disappointed. But since we didn’t have time to send it back (we were meeting a friend who was already on her way), we ate the hamburg. If taken out of context, the hamburg was actually rather good, but since what we had WANTED was a hamburger…

The rest of the day was spent wandering around in search of cake, since Kobe is famous for its cake shops. It took us pretty much the rest of the day to find one. We went to the tower in hopes of finding one at the little rotating café at the top, and they had cake… ONE plain cheesecake. So we decided to wait and find another shop. The shop we found on the map was no longer in existence, so we walked all the way to Sannomiya station in search of cake. And finally found a cake shop in the Motomachi-suji (a suji is a covered street), where, after much deliberation, we decided that instead of cake we would have parfaits. Because, you know, everyone likes parfaits. And these were really really good parfaits. I will be making some for myself over the summer.

Then we took the CORRECT train home, and I slept most of the way. I did NOT study for my vocabulary quiz on Wednesday, and then Wednesday night because I was so tired, I did not study for my lesson test on Thursday. And now I sit today, having actually finished my Japanese homework (I’m so proud!) and with a little bit of sunburn on my nose just from having eaten lunch outside yesterday. I now have the Japanese word for sunburn memorized.

Well, that’s about it kids. I have less than two more weeks of class and then something like five days of travel time before I go back to the US. Can you believe it? Personally, I’m ready to go home, but I’m also already ready to go back. Weird sensation, this is.

Sunburnt Again

Tuesday being Showa no Hi, a beautiful day, and a day in which I didn't have any plans, I did the exact opposite of what I should have been doing and did not work on my 15 minute presentation due today (I did that Wednesday morning, thank you). I instead spent the day of no class enjoying the sunshine--a bit too much.

Near my house, there is a river that you can walk down to (most rivers in Japan are banked just so to keep people from enjoying them) and so that's where I spent the better half of my morning, watching the local kids catch insects and fish. They weren't very good at it and eventually moved up the river. I was reminded of catching crawdads in Kingsport, but no such thing exists in Japan. Not crawdads, anwyay. I miss crawdads. And scaring the sister with them. Me? Evil? Naaaah.

Then I went and biked all the way to Kuzuha because it was just too beautiful a day to spend indoors (and remember, I was against spending money this weekend), so biking and exploring sounded like a great idea at the time. Not after the sunburn though.

So this week, the goal is NOT to get a sunburn but still have fun. Which, with my evil skin, I doubt that's going to work, but I'll at least try.

Toji Again

So, now that project one is finished, I still have two more to go. I have to (eventually) talk to my professor about changing my presentation in Issues in Contemporary Japan, then I have to research my new project. I also have to give a three minute speech in Japanese, but I figure after an hour-long presentation, it should be easy to put together a speech in Japanese. I may be screaming on the inside, but I've mastered the art of appearing well-prepared, confident, and knowledgeable. Now I just have to transfer that into my Japanese skills.

And of course, when I could have been doing this last weekend, I inevitably chose to slack off and enjoy being free of what was by far the largest of my projects. Because that's what weekends are for, right? I had entirely too much fun. On Saturday, I went to a Yukata fitting and Bon dancing session. Pictures will be up later on Facebook and (maybe) on the Because it's Japan blog. I got there a little early so I had first choice over the yukata and I chose a lavendar one. In retrospect, I should have chosen something a little darker, but I digress. It was pretty. I was happy. End of story. After being fitted in a yukata, we were allowed to wander around campus in search of pretty pictures and of lunch. The trouble was that wearing a yukata is something like wearing a corset--it forces you to sit up straight, stand up straight, keeps you from breathing, keeps you from eating too much. It also keeps you from being able to walk in long strides. I felt like I was taking baby-steps all day. And yes, I still want a yukata. Despite the fact I couldn't breathe, it was rather comfortable.

Then they taught us very simple bon-dancing. Bon-dancing is the traditional Japanese dance. It doesn't feature a whole lot of movement because you're in a movement-restricting yukata, so the dance deals a lot more with hand-motions and small feet movements. I liked it. I can now do some very simple bon dancing. :)

So, after that, you'd think I'd go home and consider my day over and done with. No. I went to Kyoto. That's right, I went to Kyoto and walked around the Shijo/Sanjo area. I met Krissy there and we had indian food, as is my tradition when I go to Kyoto. I had a pomegranate lassi (I simply MUST learn to make this for myself), and my usual curry and naan. I'm so horribly predictable. Then, we walked to Sanjo, where we found what has officially been titled my absolute favorite store in Kyoto. It's a bookstore in the BAL department store. This store has four stories of a MUJI, a famous store with everything from bikes to notebooks to furnature to clothing, but that's not my favorite part. No, my favorite part is that on top of the MUJI are four more stories of... books. It is simply huge. Imagine a bookstore larger in size than the Fayetteville Public Library. The only trouble was this: we arrived too late. So, I managed to find that they did NOT have the book that I am looking for (they had a slot for it but it was already sold), just in time for them to say "alright, we're closing." I was so disappointed! It is on my list of places to go back to. I need reading for the plane-ride and I have to go buy a few things in Kyoto on my last day in Japan anyway. I might buy some H.G.Wells. Such as, oh, say, War of the Worlds or Time Machine. Or maybe some Ayn Rand. You want to talk about long books? That ought to be enough to last me the 9 hour flight from KIX to LA. But, like I said, they closed before I could decide on a good book for the flight, so I'll just have to go back.

Then, on Monday I kept my promise and went to Toji Temple to buy a friend a kimono. I was a little disappointed this time though. Turns out my freaking awesome kimono was a fluke. I searched the whole area for a kimono that was just as pretty but had no stains. They don't EXIST! At least, not within my price range. The 3000 yen printed patterns were just as stained as the 1000 yen ones. So, I did the only thing I knew to do. I bought a really beautiful, higher quality fabric, but skipped out on the pattern (because they all had noticable stains), and according to my Japanese friend who went with me, since I am buying this kimono for someone closer to my mother's age, I should go with something more subdued. I compromised with my Japanese friend (because I know this friend enjoys color) and went with a very subtle pattern, no stains, bright light green. For an obi, I have something that is a funky shade of purple that looks fantastic with this kimono. Despite the fact this kimono has less of a noticable pattern, I think it's very pretty. Plus, it's higher quality fabric, so it ought to last her longer. AND it has no stains.

As for myself, I bought only two things. First, I bought dried strawberries (a must), and a new pair of flipflops. Did you honestly expect anything else? They've got a wooden base, hand painted with clear gloss on top, and they're purple. I wanted the blue ones but my foot was too big... :( I can't help the fact I have a big foot. It annoys me, especially here in Japan where the average foot size is about a size 6... But I like my new shoes. Purple is just fine with me!

Oh, and I also have a sunburn! It's not a lot (it runs across my face) but I have a sunburn. And no aloe vera in sight. This... could be bad.

Pocketful of Sunshine

I am finally finished with the Burma Presentation! I can't begin to tell you how relieved about this! It went very well. There will be more information about Burma later.

Tomorrow I am doing Bon Dancing, which is traditional Japanese dancing as taught by Heather's "obaasans" which are a group of older women whom she teaches english on Saturday morning. We'll be fitted in yukata, then we'll learn to dance. :) I'm looking forward to taking lots of photos!

You'll noticed that I have extended the "This Month in Japan" to include everything up until my last day in Japan. I can't believe that my last day is so close! It feels like I haven't got enough time to do everything I want to do in Japan. But, at the same time, I'm excited to see everyone again.

You'll also notice that I have recently seen the trailer for the new Indiana Jones movie... Oh it looks so wonderful! I can't wait! It comes out May 22, which, how fortunate for me, is RIGHT before I come home! I watched it in the makudo near my house and I think I scared some people there because I squealed with joy.

More information: Because its Japan is up to date, please visit. Also, my deviantart site is unbelievably close to 1000 page views! Not a lot by deviantart standards, but it makes me feel special. I'll probably draw something to commemorate it.

That's about it for this post. In case you're wondering, the next big project is a speech in Japanese. My speech will be on Bikes, Blues, and Barbeque. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go steal *ahem* borrow photos off facebook. Thanks Dad! :) I will give a speech about BBBQ in Japanese, and it will be teh awesomez.

(edit) Any information on the 2007 BBBQ would be welcome (statistics? Please?). :)

If I can just survive the week...

Then life will be so much better. I have already stayed up late for the past two nights and it looks like I will be doing the same thing for the rest of the week. This means waking up at the normal time (which is no later than 9:30) but going to bed at midnight or later. I just hope I don't get sick. But this is what I must do if I wish to really be able to finish the week. Friday is the presentation on Burma, which I will devote a small post about Burma later (or a series, it really requires that). In the meantime, I am struggling to catch up on my Because It's Japan blog. I'm doing my best. Trouble is, my best is essentially... blah.

So, check out the because it's japan blog, and be waiting for a post on Burma. My book-shopping trip has been postponed, which is probably a good thing because it means I won't be distracted with reading this month. Anyway, I have replaced it with bon-dancing, which is a traditional Japanese dance. We get a free yukatta fitting (a yukatta is a very basic version of kimono) and we get to learn bon-dancing, end of story. :) I am looking forward to it. Busy weekend? Yes! No rest? Nah, sleep is for losers!

US Consolate and a REAL Hamburger in Japan

So, Wednesday I visited the US consulate in Osaka and was officially on US soil for all of two hours. The talk was given by Lisa Curtis, who works for the Heritage Foundation, and it was over Pakistan-US relations and how Pakistan is going to be increasingly important in international relations (duh). The topics covered included the new regime in Pakistan, Pakistan’s safe-havens for Taliban members (and internal and external consequences of this, both of which are negative), the need for better US-Pakistan relations, and the key role Pakistan needs to play in the continued restructuring in Afghanistan. I took three and a half pages of notes. Ms. Curtis seemed optimistic about the new government in Pakistan and that it would recognize the steps it needs to take. Ms. Curtis also dodged some of the questions asked, especially if they were asked by Kansai Gaidai students…but I digress. All in all, I learned a lot. And I got to eat stale Goldfish snacks. :)

To top off my Americanized day, we walked (some of us in high heels, mind you), two stations down to the Hard Rock Café where I had an amazing REAL hamburger. It was fantastically delicious and fantastically expensive, but it was well worth it. Oh how I missed a real burger! Hence, American music and American burger and American music culture… I was happy. I forgot how much I miss American music (oh and Matchbox 20, who were playing there and made me happy)

Then I went home, propped my poor aching feet up and “studied” for a Japanese lesson test (that didn’t last long; I fell asleep). But the lesson test wasn't terribly difficult--I'll just get nickled and dimed to death as usual.

So since last Wednesday... Well, my life has been rather uneventful. I have been writing blog posts for the Because its Japan blog (look for those tomorrow), and I stayed up late last night working on my PD2 midterm. I just finished it and turned it in not but 5 minutes ago, actually.

And now I am going to talk about Baseball in Japan in my visual anthropology class and try my best not to fall asleep. Then its off to study for tomorrow's vocabulary quiz. This week is not going to be pleasent... No, I take that back, this MONTH is not going to be pleasant. At least I'll be compensated for my pain and suffering in May. I have lots of days off in May (a four day weekend, plus I have two weeks of finals that are largely empty because, guess what, I finish most of my final projects in April. I only have three days of exams! And then of course I have an extra week after class for traveling. I can't wait for MAAAAAY!

I is/are Cherry Blossom Ninja! :)

Please do not hold it against me that I am writing this while half-asleep. I apologize for any incoherent statements I could and probably will make.

This weekend was absolutely gorgeous. The sakura were in full bloom so I went trapizing across the Kansai area to get fantabulous photos of Japan and its beautiful sakura.

Friday, April 4th - Osaka Castle

So, after Heather had pulled an all-nighter on a midterm, we decided that it would be a great idea for the two of us to go to Osaka Castle, dispite the fact that Heather had had absolutely no sleep and I'd gotten up extra early to talk to the family via internet. So, we catnapped on the way to Osaka, got off the train, and walked all the way to the castle from Kyobashi. We were rewarded by plum blossoms (still in bloom), and absolutely gorgeous cherry blossoms. We found our own tree to sit under and sat there chatting while we ate our "picnic" lunch, which was a bottle of soda each and some version of chocolate (we intended to eat dinner in Kyobashi). Then, we went into the actual castle area just as the sun was starting to set. We each paid the outrageous 600 yen to go to the top of the castle just to get a photo of the grounds and the fantastic cherry blossoms.

Then after sunset we slowly headed back towards the exit and found 1) sakura in light-up form (sakura with lights to show you the colors at night), 2) a neat little party of people eating under the trees and were able to sneak some photos, and 3) a most wonderous thing called candied strawberries. It's like candied apples, only its made of strawberries, which makes it immensely better.

For dinner we had pizza and toast covered with honey, chocolate, and ice-cream (we split one)

Saturday, April 5th

Saturday I woke up late. My original plan was to go to Fushimi-inari in the morning and then do homework in the evening. Such was not the case. Instead, I woke up late, skipped Fushimi-inari entirely, and instead of doing my homework, I went to meet Heather in Shijo, where I saw more cherry blossoms and where Heather made me climb to the top of the mountain so we could see Kyoto from Shorain-in temple (assuming I'm spelling it right). The overlook was situated on top of a platform that they'd made, but the trouble with the platform was that it was raised up in the air over the tree-line and the slightest wind would make it shake. It took me a while to get used to the shaking (for a while there I was certain I was going to die) and managed to take some photos. We also met an elderly Japanese couple who told us as much as they could about sakura and Kyoto. Most likely, the husband just wanted to practice talking in english, but Heather and I got the added benefit of speaking in Japanese for at least 30 minutes. I was shocked by how much I understood! (it's moments like this that make me love Japan)

After that, we walked back down the mountain in near darkness (the sun was gone by the time we reached the bottom) and ran into some fellow kansai gaidai students. After speaking with them, we chose to have dinner at the only acceptable place within the shijo area--indian food!!! And it was delicious, as it should be. :)

Sunday, April 6th

On Sunday, Heather and I managed to get up super early and took the train all the way out to Ise. It took us two and a half hours to get there. I entertained myself by reading the names of the stops and chuckling to myself over their english translation. We passed such places as "red eye mouth," "east blue mountain," "south blue mountain," and we would later go to Toba, which is literally "bird feathers."

Once we got to Ise, we rented bikes (they had a bike rental center!) and biked to the inner shrine, which is the bigger, older, and more grand of the two. I was duly unimpressed by the actual building, but the surrounding area was absolutely gorgeous. The only trouble was that Ise features a gorgeous river with some of the clearest water I've ever seen and the Tennesseean in me was screaming "TAKE SHOES OFF! GO WALK THE RIVER!" Trouble was, I was pretty sure the priests would kill me if I did that since no one else there dared to get in the river. I guess walking up rivers is a truly south US thing. Thus, I was sad.

But, I was made happy again by beautiful sakura, so all was good. After leaving the shrine, we went biking all around Ise in search of more beautiful sakura pictures. We found plenty. Then, at about 5 it was time to turn in our bikes and head for Toba, where we hoped to see the wedded rocks (one of the top three must-see sights of Japan). Unfortunately, we never found said rocks because when we got to Toba, we discovered that we had gone too far and that we would have to come back another day.

I slept through the ride home. First off, it was dark and there wasn't much to see. Second, I was so tired I didn't remember falling asleep. Third, I was that tired. Aside from that, the trip back home featured the wonderful experience that all visitors to Japan must inevitably face--the search for a western-style toilet. There wasn't one in Toba station, there wasn't one in Iseshi station, there wasn't one in umehommachi station, and there WAS one in namba station but it had no toilet paper. Allow me to explain something about Japan. The japanese style toilet is a hole in the ground, essentially. I'm not exactly sure how you use it. And I don't intend to find out how to use it. And I'm almost positive that it was invented by men. Such toilets are common in train stations and shrine bathrooms. They stink something horrible and in both places they do not supply you with toilet paper. This is why all free handouts you get from advertisements on the road include one of those little tissue things. It's not for your nose.

So, after FINALLY finding a western style toilet (albiet with no toilet paper and no paper-giving advertisement person in sight), we grabbed a cheap dinner at McDonalds and went home. There, I caught the last few minutes of Flight Plan (host sister's fault), took a shower, and went to bed at midnight, all without having written a single word on my paper due today.

And now I sit, paper completed but late, relaying the awesomeness that was my weekend to you. I is/are tired, but I is/are happy and I would not change a thing about my weekend. :)

G'night!